Adoption Process

To be considered an adopter you must…

Be 18 years of age or older, employed, and financially able to become a pet owner.

If you rent your home, you must have consent from your landlord to have a pet.

All other family pets must be spayed or neutered, if they are 6 months or older, unless there are medical reasons for not doing so. They must also be current on vaccinations.

You must agree have a home visit done by one of our volunteers. We will need to see the area of the home where the animal will be allowed. All members of the family must be present, including current pets. If distance becomes an issue (e.g. we are not able to find volunteers in your location) we will require three additional references. We will notify you immediately in this situation.

You must also agree to the following conditions:

Agree to spay/neuter the animal as the age limit approaches, with one of our sterilization options.

Be able and willing to spend time/money necessary to provide training, medical treatments and proper care for the entire lifetime of the animal.

Provide the animal a collar and name tag to be worn at all times.

Follow all leash restrictions of your community.

What does the adoption process entail?

Our goal is to match the right animal with the right adopters. To ensure the best match is made, we have established a process that is fair and accurate in determining the best home.

Our organization is completely run by unpaid volunteers, many with full time jobs, who donate their free time to helping FFRR succeed. The entire process can be smooth, rather than complicated, if all parts of the application are thoroughly filled out.

We do have paper copies available. We can also provide you with a mailing address if needed. Please send an email request to ffrrinc@gmail.com. We thank you in advance for your time and patience throughout our adoption process.

Step 1 – Fill out a Pre-Adoption Application

We require this before we arrange a meeting between applicant and foster. Since we are a foster based organization, it is our priority to take the safety of our foster family into consideration.

This application will tell us about you, your lifestyle, and background with animals.

Step 2 – Application Preliminary Review

Our application review team will initially screen your application to determine if all necessary information was provided. After this initial review is complete, the application will be sent to volunteers who conduct the reference checks and home visits.

Step 3 – Landlord Approval Verified

If it is determined that you rent your home, your landlord will be contacted to make sure you have approval to have an animal in your home; along with any restrictions on weight or breed.

If your landlord does not allow for an animal in your home, your application will be denied at this point in the process.

Step 4 – Veterinary References Contacted

If you have current pets, we require a veterinary reference. We ask if all of your current pets are sterilized and up to date on vaccinations. If you don’t have any current pets, we will ask about the veterinary care that your previous pets received. If you have never owned a pet, this step is skipped.

If your veterinary reference(s) cannot verify the spay/neuter and vaccination status of current or previous pets, your application will be denied during this step.

Step 5 – Personal References Contacted

Three personal references will be contacted to ask questions on you as a pet owner. This can take the most amount of time. Asking your references to return calls in a timely fashion will eliminate some gaps in the processing of your application.

If our volunteers have any concerns with you adopting a pet, your application will be denied at this point.

Step 6 – Home Visit and Applicant Interview

We require home visits to determine that the animal will be living in a safe environment. The volunteer will do a short walk through of your home and yard, point out any safety concerns, and advise any area of concerns they might have. All household members must be present for the home visit.

With our main location being in the Bismarck-Mandan area, we often run into distance as being a home visit concern. We have volunteers across the state who are wiling to help. If we don’t have a volunteer in your area, instead of denying your application due to distance being an issue, we would ask for three more personal references. We will notify you if we require this.

If our volunteers have any concerns about your home visit, or you deny a home visit, your application will be denied.

Step 7 – Meeting between Approved Applicant & Available Animal

We are a foster based rescue. We do not have a shelter or a building to create an appointment time to meet animals. We will not arrange meetings between animals and adopters until an application has been approved.

Once you have been approved, a volunteer (usually the foster) will contact you about scheduling a time for you to meet the animal you are interested in. This meeting may occur at the foster’s residence or your home.

This meeting does not guarantee you to be the final adopting decision on the animal. We may receive multiple applications, where multiple meetings will have to occur for that animal. Also, if the volunteer involved in the meeting does not think you are a good fit for that particular pet, you may be denied adoption to that specific animal but can still be considered for another.

Step 8 – Adoption

If you have decided to go forward with the adoption, after the approval has been given, you are required to sign the adoption contract and provide the adoption donation fee. If you adopt an animal that is too young to be sterilized, we will walk through the options we have for this situation.

If you decide the animal is not a good fit for your home, you are required to return the animal to our rescue. The adoption donation fee will be forfeited and considered a donation to the rescue. Please contact us if you have any issues with the pet you adopted.

Step 9 – Notification of Spay/Neuter

If you adopt an animal that is too young to be sterilized prior to adoption, you have several options. We schedule the appointment with our affiliating vets and we fund the sterilization or you may schedule the appointment with your preferred vet, contact us with the date, and you will be required to pay for the appointment. We will check with that vet to ensure the sterilization was complete, as promised. If it was not completed, we will bring the animal back into our care.

Step 10 – Optional Post Adoption Follow-up Visit

Our adoption contract contains a clause that allows one of our volunteers the ability to perform a follow-up visit. We may require such a visit if we feel that the terms of the adoption contract are not being met. We are committed to the life, health and well being of every animal we place for the remainder of their life. Should the adoption not work out or you need to rehome the animal, we require, by contract, that the animal be returned to us. Please notify us immediately at ffrrinc@gmail.com if this situation occurs.

Additionally…

Our rescue is operated by all unpaid volunteers. It may take three hours or three days to complete the application process, depending on volunteer availability. An approved application means that the applicant is approved to adopt an animal from our rescue, it is not a guarantee that the applicant will be allowed to adopt the animal specified on the application. We often receive many applications for the same pet, so please don’t be disappointed if your application is approved but another approved applicant is selected to adopt the animal. We strive to do our best, and always take the best interest of the animal into consideration.